Interpretation of an Interracial Life

by Douglas Williams

In 1934 there was a picture made by filmmaker John M. Stahl titled Imitation of Life. The film follows a poor white family’s rise to riches during the trying times of 1930’s with the help of their loyal black maid Aunt Delilah, an obvious reinterpretation of the then extremely popular character of Aunt Jemima. The white Pullman family, Bea and her young daughter Jessie, rise to the upper echelon of society by using Delilah’s secret pancake recipe, boxing the powder and selling it to millions. The inspiration coming from the Aunt Jemima Corporation, which in today’s terms is not the most politically correct product to be reinterpreting. The term Aunt Jemima today is often associated with Uncle Tom or the idea of a loyal, abiding black person who primarily holds the interest of their white employers above their own. This, in essence, describes the character we are to follow for the duration of this film.
The film, either consciously or unconsciously, draws a very distinct line between what the filmmaker feels the differences between the family relationships of white and black families by providing a concentrated example, a single white female with one daughter and a single black female with one daughter. The distinctions can be seen by the very first frame of the film. As we fade in we see a small rubber duck floating in a bathtub and a child’s voice calling out for it, “I want my quack quack,” As we pull back we see Bea drying her young daughter Jessie after her bath. The demands continue from Jessie as she tells her mother that she does not want go to school. These are very genuine behavioral traits for a young child to display but when they are compounded with the interpretation Stahl provides of Delilah’s family the division is very apparent.
When there is knock at the door downstairs Bea answers the door to find a delightfully friendly character named Delilah. Delilah quickly identifies what Donald Bogle, author of the book Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, & Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films, would describe as the Mammy character. Bogle states in his book that most all characters played by African American actors in early cinema can broken down into these five groups. The Mammy character is described as “distinguished, however, by her sex and her fierce independence. She is usually big [and] fat,” (Bogle 9). This description very vividly describes the character that shows up on Bea’s doorstep.
Delilah comes asking about a job that she saw in the paper, yet Bea does not remember ever putting an ad out for a maid. Sure enough it was Delilah that made the mistake, she is on the wrong street and foolishly knocked on the wrong door. Still she desires to stay and talks Bea into taking her and her very light skinned daughter Peola in. When Jessie, Bea’s two-year-old daughter, meets Delilah she greets her by calling her “horsy”, seemingly never having been around an African American before. Both Bea and Delilah laugh the matter off, an event that occurs more than once in the film.
Delilah’s speech in the film is also something that sets her, very apparently, apart from any of the other white characters, she always “has-a” some to do. This speech was a very common trait for many filmmakers to dispose upon their black characters according to Bogle.
As the film continues Bea and Delilah become closer and closer, while still maintaining their working relationship, though it being much more relaxed than one may assume. Before long Delilah lets Bea in on her family’s secret pancake recipe, her most prized secret. Surely this was no mistake by the filmmakers, Delilah is delighted in the kitchen, it seems to be her favorite place to be. The most important thing to her and the legacy that she will pass on to her daughter is her dear pancake recipe. Perhaps the statement by the filmmaker was not to be this offensive but the undertones can be noted. The obvious difference between Bea’s legacy to her own daughter can also be noted. Jessie’s future holds higher education, a good job, and a healthy family by Bea’s own admission.
Soon Bea and Delilah go into business together, or rather Bea goes into business with Delilah’s pancake recipe and puts Delilah’s name on the box while she herself takes in the rewards. Even when it becomes time to incorporate the company, after they have hit it big, Delilah wants no part in the profits, only enough to provide a good funeral for herself someday.
The distinction between the two woman’s goals also plays a part in the film. At one point Bea begins to talk about vacationing from the pancake business and taking some time off perhaps, “Somewhere outside of the country,” where as Delilah simply says that, “All the vacation I need is to get off my feet,” a humorous remark that has a serious subtext, yet almost unnoticing what she herself has attested to, still Delilah swears that she loves to cook and clean for others, especially Bea and Jessie. She wants nothing more than to spend the rest of her life serving them.
Another interesting and possibly the most important subject of the film occurs between Delilah and her daughter Peola. At the beginning of the film Delilah describes to Bea how Peola’s father was very light skinned resulting in Peola’s own complexion which is also very light. It is because of this, and the very white community that they live in that Peola begins to resent her mother for ‘making’ her black. “This is your blood,” she cries at one point when Jessie calls her black. Delilah holds her in her arms telling her child that she must become accustom to such ridicule to survive, even refusing Bea’s plea for Jessie to apologize. She wants Peola to learn and endure.
One moving and sobering scene occurs when Delilah arrives at Peola’s school to bring her a raincoat so that she will not get wet in the rain. The teacher meets her at the door telling her that she must have made a mistake, that she has not “colored” children in her class. It is then that Delilah spots Peola sitting at her desk, covering her face with her book so as to hide from her mother. But it is too late, she has been exposed. She walks to the front of the room to receive the coat from her mother only to hear the mumblings from other students proclaiming that they didn’t realize that she was “colored”. The color of her skin, to the students, does not matter, no matter how light it is, the fact that she has black blood is what makes her colored even if her skin is as light as theirs. Bea then asks why she doesn’t just move Peola to a different school yet Delilah replies “I can’t keep sending her to different schools all her life,” repeating her message of endurance.
The film then takes a very sudden turn. The audience is flung ten years into the future. Aunt Delilah’s Pancake Mix is immensely popular and Bea is throwing a party for the 10-year anniversary. Although this should be a celebration for all, Delilah chooses to stay outside the party and listen to the band from outdoors. She stands with her daughter who has grown cold over the years, seemingly unable to endure as her mother does. The filmmaker has changed Peola’s character into a rude villain of sorts because she refuses to accept her role as a black woman although she looks light skinned enough to pass for white.
It is in this way that the second act of the film begins to mirror the relationship between Bea and Delilah. Bea is indoors, now a popular mogul with a booming product where as Delilah is on the outside looking in, with only enough money to her name to give her the funeral she has always dreamed of. Bea is rich, Delilah only wishes to serve, a controversial choice by the filmmaker.
After the party Bea proposes to Delilah that sending Peola to a black school may be better for her, that the stress of the intergraded schools may just be too much. Suggesting segregation seems like a good idea to Delilah, all she wants is for her child to be happy. Conversely Jessie is away at a prestigious school studying to achieve those goals that Bea had always talked about.
The plot of the film in general seems to deviate away from the race relations that have played such a dominant role in the rest of the picture. Bea begins to fall in love and we lose sight of Delilah. Its not until Jessie returns from school do we discover that Peola has run away due to the talk of sending her off. When Jessie voices her own opinions about leaving school Bea’s chief concern is that she has a football captain she is hiding whereas Delilah’s own problems seem much more severe.
We shy away from Delilah even more as a small subplot of Jessie falling in love with Bea’s love interest takes place. When we return to Delilah has suffered an enormous amount from the pain of losing her daughter. She is bed ridden and begins planning out her dream funeral, laying out the procedure as Bea explains that there is no way she and her family could go on without her. It is interesting that her character chooses to use those particular words when for the last half hour of the film she has in fact been going through life in the lap of luxury without much of a thought to Delilah, the audience as well has let Delilah drift to the back of their minds. The film ends with Delilah’s funeral taking place, just as she had foreseen it. Peola attends and begins to weep and beg her mother for forgiveness, feeling guilty for her mother’s death.
The film does, as I believe was the filmmaker’s goal, show a very direct difference between a black and white family during the 1930’s although the characters are riddled with stereotypes. The filmmaker chose to use a very stereotyped black character to appeal to the white audience that was going to see it, a happy cheerful black maid who only wishes to serve, no matter if they rise to the upper class society or not. Their friendship is based on the master, servant relationship and the maid of all people desires the least change.
There are many undertones of the racism that occurred during these times in many films, though we are to believe they were committed unconsciously, one cannot watch films such as this today and not see the subtexts. The most blaring example of this may be that Louise Beavers, the very respected actress who portrayed Delilah, was billed fifth in the credits, certainly not the placement for one of the two main characters of a film. Whether these plot points and undertones were intentional or not they are still present. We, the audience, are now able to look back and see the conditions and situations the filmmaker wanted us to see and also the ones he didn’t. Either way there is a lot to learn from a film such as Imitation of Life.